r^ 



ORATION 



WILLIAM Hf'SEWARl), 



AT PLYMOUTH, 



D E C R M B E R iil , 1 8 5 H 



ALBANY : 

WEKD, PAKSONS AND COMPANY, 
1856. 



ORATION 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 



AT PLYMOUTH, 



DECEMBER 21, 18 55. 




ALBANY : 

WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, 

1856. 



ORATION. 



Society and Government are mutually related and insepa- 
rable. The material, intellectual, moral and spiritual con- 
ditions of every people, determine, through either a direct 
exercise of their will or their passive consent, the nature and 
form of their government. Reasoning from the attributes 
of the Creator and from the constitution of man, we justly 
conclude that a high stage of social happiness is attainable, 
and that beneficent government is therefore ultimately pos- 
sible. Any different theory makes the hopes which sustain 
virtue delusive, and the Deity, who inspires them, a demon, 
equally to be feared and hated. Experience, however, 
teaches us that the advances of mankind towards such hap- 
piness and government are very slow. Poetry, indeed, often 
presents to us pleasing scenes of national felicity ; but these 
are purely imaginary, while history is an almost unrelieved 
narrative of political crimes and public dangers and calami- 
ties. 

We discover, by induction, moral laws as inflexible as the 
material laws of the universe. We know, therefore, that 
the tardiness of political progress results from a failure thus 
far to discover or apply those moral laws. The failure, at 
first view, excites surprise. Social melioration is apparently 
an object of general and intense desire. Certainly, the arts 
which subserve material safety, subsistence and comfort, 



have been eminently improved. We construct useful engines 
recently conceived ; we search the whole surface of the round 
earth with comparative ease ; we know the appointed 
courses and seasons of worlds which we can scarcely see. 
It is doubtful whether the arts of architecture, painting, 
sculpture and poetry, are susceptible of higher perfection. 
Why, then, does political science remain obscure, and the 
art of government uncertain and perplexed? 

It happens, in some degree, because material vt^ants have 
hitherto exacted excessive care ; in some degree, because 
the advantages which result from political improvements 
are indirect and diffusive ; but chiefly because the science is 
in its nature recondite, and the art intrinsically difficult. 

Metaphysics is a science confessedly abstruse, and generally 
regarded as irksome and fruitless. Lord Bacon so pro- 
nounces, and he explains : — "For the wit and mind of man, 
if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the 
creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is 
limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as the spider 
worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings forward, 
indeed, cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of 
thread and work, but of no substance or profit." How could 
the study of groups be either easier or more satisfactory than 
that of individual man? The same philosopher confesses 
that "government is a part of knowledge, secret and retired." 

Consider only one State. Its magnitude is immense, its 
outlines are indistinct, it is without symmetry of parts; its 
principles and dispositions are a confused aggregate of the 
imperfectly understood principles and dispositions of many 
thousands or even many millions of men. The causes which 
have chiefly given form and direction to these principles 
and dispositions are either unknown or forgotten ; those 
which arc now modifying them are too subtle for our exami- 
nation. The future of States involves further conditions, 
which lie outside of the range of human foresight, and 



therefore are called accidents. Human life is short, while 
the process of induction in political science reaches through 
generations, and even ages. Philosophers seldom enjoy facili- 
ties for that process. Hence, they " make imaginary laws 
for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as 
the stars, which give little light, because they are so high." 
Statesmen, on the contrary, " write according to the States 
where they live, what is received law, and not what ought 
to be law." 

A constitutional alteration is often necessary to secure a 
desirable social improvement ; but such an alteration cannot 
be made without a previous change of public opinion in the 
State, and even of opinion in surrounding States ; for nations 
are social persons, and members of an universal common- 
wealth. Habit resists such changes. Timidity, though 
looking forward, is short sighted ; and with far sighted ven- 
eration, which always looks backward, opposes such changes. 
Laws, however erroneous, or however arbitrarily established, 
acquire a supposed sanctity from the ceremony of their en- 
actment, and derive great strength from protracted acquies- 
cence. In a despotic State, no subject can move changes. 
In a free one, each member may oppose, and opponents 
more easily combine than advocates. Ambition is the ruling 
passion of States. It is blind to defects and dangers, while 
hurrying them on in careers of aggression and aggrandize- 
ment. The personal interests and ambitions of many effec- 
tive members of the State cling to its institutions, however 
erroneous or injurious, and protect them against innovation. 
Reform can only appeal to reason and conscience. Conser- 
vatism arouses prejudice, cupidity and fear, and adroitly ex- 
cites and directs hatred against the person of the reformer. 
Retaliation too naturally follows ; and so the controversy, 
which properly ought to be a public and dispassionate one, 
changes imperceptibly into a heated conflict of factions. 
Humanity and benevolence are developed only with increas- 



ing knowledge and refinement. Hence, castes and classes 
long remain ; and these, although all equally interested in a 
proposed melioration, are, by an artful direction of their 
mutual antipathies, made to defeat it by their implacable 
contentions. Material interests are immediately roused and 
combined in opposition, because they suffer from the least 
disturbance. The benefits of a social change are more dis- 
tant, and therefore distrusted and undervalued. The law of 
progress certainly does not require changes of institutions 
to be made at the cost of public calamities, or even of great 
private inconveniences. But that law is, nevertheless, in- 
exorable. A necessary reformation will have its way, peace- 
fully if favored, violently if resisted. In this sense, the 
Founder of Christianity confessed that he had come upon the 
earth to bring, not peace, but a sword. Revolutions are not 
divinely appointed attendants of progress, nor is liberty 
necessarily born of social convulsion, and baptized with 
blood. Revolutions, on the contrary, are the natural penal- 
ties for unwise persistence in error, and servile acquiescence 
in injustice and oppression. Such revolutions, more- 
over, are of doubtful success. Most men engage readily 
enough in civil wars, and for a flash are hot and active ; but 
they cool from natural unsteadiness of temper, and abandon 
their objects, and, destitute alike of principle, honor and 
true courage, betray themselves, their associates, and even 
their cause, however just and sacred. Happily, however, 
martial revolutions do not always fail. In some cases, the 
tempers and dispositions of the nation undergo a propitious 
change; it becomes generous, brave and self-denying, and 
freedom consequently gains substantial and enduring tri- 
umphs. It is hard, in such cases, to separate the share of 
fortune from that of merit, in analyzing the characters of 
heroes. Nor is it absolutely necessary. The martial hero- 
ism of such revolutions is wisely honored, even with exag- 
geration, because such honors stimulate a virtuous and 



healthful emulation. Mankind seek out the noblest among 
the successful champions, and investing him with imaginary- 
excellence in addition to his real merit, set him apart as an 
object of universal veneration to the world's end. We re- 
cognize such impersonations in Tell and Alfred, in Wallace 
and Washington. 

These successful martial revolutions, however, only con- 
summate changes which were long before projected and 
prepared by bold, thoughtful, earnest and persevering 
reformers. There is justly due, therefore, to these reformers 
at least some of the homage which redeemed nations award 
to their benefactors. We shall increase that tribute, if we 
reflect that the sagacity which detects the roots and causes 
from which national calamities and thraldoms spring, and 
proceeds calmly to remove them, and to avert the need of 
an ultimate sanguinary remedy, or prepare that remedy so 
that it shall be effectual, combines the merits of genius, of 
prudence and humanity, with those of patriotism. Our 
admiration of these reformers will rise still higher when we 
remember that they always are eminently good men, denied 
the confidence and sympathies of the country which they 
are endeavoring to save. They are necessarily good men, 
because only such can love freedom heartily. 

"All others love not Freedom, but license, which never hath more scope 
or induigence than under tyrants. Hence it is that t3a"ants are not often 
offended, nor stand much in doubt of bad men, as being all naturally servile ; 
but in whom virtue and true worth most is eminent, these the}' fear in earnest, 
as by right their masters. Against these lie all their hatred and suspicion. 
Consequently, neither do bad men hate tyrants, but have been always 
readiest, with their falsified names of loyalty and obedience, to color over 
their base compliances." 

The devotion of these real authors of all beneficent revo- 
lutions to the melioration of human society, is therefore the 
most perfect and impressive form of magnanimity. 

I know very well that this estimate is not generally 
allowed; nor is the injustice of the case peculiar. It 



8 

occurs in all other departments of activity. We justly 
honor the name of Watt, who applied the ascertained 
mechanical power of steam to the service of the useful arts of 
social life — and the memory of Fulton, who converted the 
steam engine into a marine power, and sent it abroad on all 
lakes, rivers and oceans, an agent of commerce, knowledge, 
civilization and freedom. Yet we seldom recall the previous 
and indispensable studies of the Marquis of Worcester, who 
announced his invention of the steam engine itself in those 
words, as full of piety and benevolence as of joy: 

" Thanks to God, next to those which are due for creation and redemp- 
tion, for havinjr vouchsafed an insight into so great a secret of nature, bene- 
ficial to all mankind, as this water commanding engine." 

We cheerfully accord renown to Morse, who produced the 
electric telegraph ; but we are prone to forget that Franklin 
discovered the germ of that great invention, by boldly ques- 
tioning the awe-inspiring lightnings in their native skies. 

There is abundant excuse for the popular neglect of 
peaceful, social reformers. Either they are engaged in 
apparently idle and visionary speculations, or else occupied 
in what seems even more absurd, an obstinate contention 
with the prevailing political philosophy of their age. Those 
speculations assume the consistency of science — that con- 
tention, the dignity of knowledge — only when in some later 
age the principles they announced have been established. 
In the meantime,' they pass for malcontents and fanatics. 
The rude taste of society generally delights in themes and 
characters which are sounding, marvelous, and magnificent ; 
and prefers the march, the camp, the siege, the surprise, the 
sortie, the charge, the battle, with its quickly vibrating 
fortunes — the victory, the agonies of the night which follows 
it, and the pomp and revelry of the day which banishes the 
complaining memories of that fearful night, to the humani- 
tarian's placid studies, or the bewildering debates of polemic 
politics. 



Excusable, however, as the injustice is, which I have de- 
scribed, it is nevertheless unwise and injurious. It dis- 
courages necessary, noble and generous efforts, and is chief 
among the bulwarks of superstition and despotism. The 
energies of men can never remain stationary. A nation that 
will not tolerate the activity of intellectual energy in the 
pursuit of political truth, must expect the study of that 
truth to cease. A nation that has ceased to produce original 
and inventive minds, restless in advancing the land marks 
of knowledge and freedom, from that moment has begun to 
recede towards ignorance and slavery. Every stage back- 
wards renders its return more hopeless. 

I am sure that this great error will not last always, and 
yet I do not think it is near its end. How long it shall 
endure, is known only to Him who, although he commands 
us to sow and to plant with undoubting faith, that we shall 
reap and gather the fruits of our culture, reserves to himself, 
nevertheless, not only the control, but even the knowledge 
of the forth-coming seasons. 

It is because I am unwilling to forego a proper occasion 
for disavowing that error, that I am here to celebrate, over 
the graves of the Forefathers, on this day devoted to their 
memories, the virtues, the labors and the sufferings, of the 
Puritans of New England and Old England. My interest 
in the celebration is not, like your own, a derived, but only 
a reflected one. I am not native here, nor was I born to the 
manner of this high and holy observance. The dogmatical 
expositions of the Christian scheme pronounced by the Puri- 
tans have not altogether commanded my acceptance. I shall, 
therefore, refrain from even an approach to those finer parts of 
my great theme, justly familiar to your accustomed orators, 
which reach the profoundest depths of reverence and love in 
the bosoms of the lineal descendants of the founders of New 
England. A few years after the death of Napoleon, I stood 
before the majestic column in the Place Vendome, that 



10 

lifts his statue high above the capital of France. When I 
asked who scattered there a thousand wreaths of flowers, 
freshly gathered, that covered its base, the answer came 
quickly back, " All the world." So I, one only of tlie same 
vast constituency, cheerfully cast my garland upon the tomb 
of the Pilgrims and lend my voice to aid your noble purpose 
of erecting here a worthier and more deserved monument 
to the memory of the Pilgrims. It is, indeed, quite unne- 
cessary to their fame; yet it is, alas, only too necessary to 
correct the basis of the world's judgment of heroic worth. 
Make its foundations broad as the domain which the ad- 
venturers of the May Flower, peacefully and without 
injustice, rescued from the tramp of savage tribes ! Let 
its material be of the imperishable substance of these ever- 
lasting hills ! Let its devices and descriptions be colossal, 
as becomes the emblems and tributes which commemorates 
a world's ever upheaving deliverance from civil and reli- 
gious despotism ! Let its shaft rise so high, that it shall 
cast its alternate shadows, changing with the progress of 
the sun in his journey, across the Atlantic and over the 
intervening mountains to the Pacific coast I It must even 
then borrow majesty from the rock which was the first 
foothold of the Pilgrims on these desolate shores, instead 
of imparting to it sublimity. 

But I may not touch the domestic story of your ancestors. 
Only a Jewish hand could strike the cymbals with the bold- 
ness due to the theme of the march of the host of Israel, 
under the guidance of its changeful pillar of cloud and of 
fire, while pursued by the chariots and horsemen of Egypt, 
through the divinely divided floods of the Arabian Sea ; or, 
without temerity almost sacrilegious, lift from the waving 
boughs the harps which the daughters of Jerusalem hung 
upon the willows, while by the side of the rivers of Assyria 
they sat down, and wept the piteous captivity of their 
nation, beloved, but temporarily forsaken of God. 



11 

It is a sure way of promoting knowledge and virtue, as 
well as of rising to greatness and goodness, to study with 
due care and reverence the operation of sublime principles 
of conduct in advancing the progress of mankind. I desire 
so to contemplate the working of the leading principle of 
the Puritans. 

I confess that the Puritans neither disclosed nor discovered 
any new truths of morals or of government. None such have 
been discovered, at least since the Divine Teacher set forth 
the whole system of private and public ethics among the 
olive groves, on that one which was his favorite among the 
mountains that look down upon Jerusalem. 

Nor was it their mission to institute a new progress of 
mankind. Although the eastern nations, the first to enjoy 
the light of civilization, had long before the age of the Puri- 
tans, sunk into that deep sleep from which there is as yet no 
awaking, yet Europe was even then full of energy, enterprise 
and hope. The better elements of the Oriental and Mediter- 
ranean civilizations had survived and, cooperating with the 
pure influences of Christianity, were enlightening and refin- 
ing the southern and western nations. The Western church, 
which until recently was unpartitioned, had long defended 
the faith against the Saracens, and protected feeble States 
against the aggressions of ambitious princes. It still held the 
nations in the bonds of a common fraternity. Nor had it 
forgotten to proselyte, after the primitive manner, by incul- 
cating morality and charity. It had, by its potent command, 
addressed to the conscience of Christendom, abolished 
throughout Europe that system of personal servitude in 
which a large, perhaps the largest, portion of every commu- 
nity had been held, under every form of government. It 
bore its testimony steadily against that system everywhere 
declaring that " Grod and Nature equally cry out against 
human slavery; that serfs and slaves are a part of the human 
family which Christ died to redeem ; and that equality is an 



12 

essential incident of that brotherhood which he enjoins as a 
test by which his disciples shall be known." 

The foundations of that comprehensive international code, 
which is now everywhere accepted, were broadly laid. It 
was then clearly taught that " there are in nature certain 
fountains of justice, from which all pure civil laws flow, 
varying only in this — that as waters take tinctures and 
tastes from the soils through which they run, so do civil laws 
differ according to the regions and governments where they 
are planted." Luther had already summoned Europe to a 
new and more vigorous morality, and Calvin's sharp voice 
was ringing through the continent, calling the faithful away 
from all ostentatious ceremonies of worship, to that pure 
and spiritual one which God prefers "before all temples." 
The feudal policy, although founded in very imperfect con- 
ceptions of civil society, had saved, through the recent 
decline, many personal and political rights and privileges 
which otherwise would have been swept away, as they were 
in Asia, by the desolating hand of absolute j>ower. Chivalry, 
a wild vine, engrafted upon Christianity, wasbearing abundant 
fruits of courage, constancy, gallantry, munificence, honor and 
clemency. The machinery of mercenary armies was not yet 
perfected, and the security of government was still held to 
depend, not on laws and force, but on the approval and sym- 
pathies of the people. Commerce had discovered that the 
oceans were designed, not to separate, but to unite nations, 
and was extending its field over all habitable climes, and 
taking on the dignity of its new functions as aft auxiliary of 
empire. Manufactures had been incorporated as a distinct 
wheel in the enginery of national wealth; and the productive 
classes had already attained a position among the ruling ele- 
ments of States. A wise policy of liberal naturalization 
was breaking up local septs and clans, and distributing the 
seeds of material and social improvement throughout both 
hemispheres. Indolence, expense and faction, had prepared 



13 

that decline of aristocratic orders which still continues. 
Just notions of the free tenure of lands, and even that great 
idea of the universal freedom of labor, which is now agita- 
ting the world, prevailed quite widely. Italy, 

" The dark'ned ages' last remaining light," 

had never failed to present examples of republican institu- 
tions. The monarchical constitutions of that period con- 
tained sharply-defined limitations, and they were vigorously 
guarded and defended. It was a general theory, that the 
subject could not be taxed without consent of the legisla- 
ture, and that princes could only govern in conformity to 
laws. England especially had a parliament, the type of 
mordern legislatures, trial by jury, magna charta and the 
common law, constituting one four fold and majestic arch 
for the support of civil liberty. She had, moreover, eman- 
cipated herself from the supremacy of the See of Rome, 
and the popular mind was intently engaged equally in the 
pursuit of theological truth, and in the application of the 
organic laws to the maintenance and defence of public and 
private rights. 

It was the age of Spenser, Shakspeare, Bacon and Milton. 
Poetry had risen from lyric beauty to epic dignity ; histor}^, 
from fabulous chronicle to philosophical argument ; and 
learning, from words and forms, to things and laws. Eea- 
soning from these circumstances, it seemed that the onward 
progress of society was assured, and that civil and religious 
liberty were about to be established on broad and enduring 
foundations. 

Nevertheless, a reaction had already begun, whose force is 
even yet unspent. The See of Rome took alarm from the 
movement of the reformation, and combined with kines 
against nations. Henry VIII. arrogated to himself the very 
same spiritual supremacy, which, with the aid of the people 
and in the name of Christian liberty, he had wrested from 



14 

the Pope ; and with singular caprice employed it in compel- 
ling conformity to the obnoxious faith and vvorsliip of Rome, 
conducted by ecclesiastics who derived their appointments 
from himself, and held them at his own pleasure. The reign 
of Mary inaugurated that relapse to Rome, which the ca- 
prices of Henry had rendered inevitable. Elizabeth rein- 
stalled the reformation, but renewed the regal claim to 
spiritual supremacy. The people resisted all these ecclesias- 
tical usurpations of the Tudors, ancl they, in retaliation, bold- 
ly attempted to subvert the constitutional authority of parlia- 
ment. Elizabeth, under the advice of sagacious statesmen, 
and supported by temporizing churchmen, resorted to the 
favorite expedient of politicians — compromise. Compro- 
mise is a feasible and often a necessary mode of adjusting 
conflicting material interests, but can never justly or wisely 
be extended to the subversion of the natural rights or the 
moral duties of subjects or citizens. Even where a compro- 
mise is proper in itself, it derives all its strength from the 
fair and full consent of all the parties whom it binds. Eliza- 
beth caused the Roman Catholic creed, discipline and ritual 
to be revised and altogether recast, under the direction of 
leaders of some of the conflicting sects ; and thus a new sys- 
tem was produced, which, as was claimed, stood midway 
between the uncompromising Church of Rome and equally 
uncompromising latitudinarian Protestantism. The new 
system was established bylaw, and a hierarchy was appointed 
by the crown, to whose care it was committed. Absolute 
and even active conformity was commanded to be enforced 
by pains and penalties in special and unconstitutional tribu- 
nals, acting without appeal, and in derogation of the common 
law. The new system, whatever might be its religious and 
ecclesiastical harmony with the Divine precepts, was, in its 
civil aspects, a mere political institution. It was offensive 
and odious to a zealous people, who, though divided into 
opposing sects, agreed in regarding the political authority 



15 

assumed by the State as a sacrilegious usurpation. The friends 
of civil liberty also condemned it, as a turning of the batte- 
ries that had been won from the Roman See, in the name of 
liberty, against the very fortress of liberty itself. Neverthe- 
less, a portion of the clergy, who had now become depend- 
ent on the State, members of the privileged classes, always 
disinclined to political agitation, placemen and waiters for 
places, the timid, the venal and the frivolous, early gave 
in their adhesion, and the compromise daily gained wider 
acquiescence, through the appliances of political seduction, 
proscription and persecution. The Church of England was 
built on that compromise. Incorporated into the constitu- 
tion with such auxiliary political powers, it must necessarily 
augment the influence of the throne, and be subversive equally 
of the civil and religious liberties of the people. 

A conservative power, a new conservative power, was 
necessary to prevent that fatal consummation. That power 
appeared in the form of a body of obscure religious sectaries, 
men of monastical devoutness, yet retaining the habits of 
domestic and social life ; simple, but not unlearned ; unam- 
bitious; neither rich enough to forget their God, nor yet 
poor enough to debase their souls ; content with mechanical 
and agricultural occupations in villages and rural districts, 
yet conscious of the liberty with which Christ had made 
them free, and therefore bold enough to confront ecclesias- 
tical and even royal authority in the capital. Serious as 
became their religious profession, they grew under perse- 
cution to be grave, formal and austere. Chosen emissaries 
of God, as they believed, they willingly became outcasts 
among men. Divinely constituted depositaries of pure and 
abounding truth, as they thought, they announced, as their 
own rule of conduct, that no article of faith, no exercise of 
ecclesiastical authority, no rule of discipline, and not even a 
shred of ceremonial or sacrament, should be accepted, unless 
sanctioned by direct warrant from the Scriptures as inter- 



16 

preted by themselves, in the free exercise of their own con- 
sciences, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. God, although a 
benevolent Father, w^as yet, as they believed, jealous towards 
disobedience of His revealed will, and would punish 
conscious neglect of its commandments. These were 
the Puritans. They came into the world to save it from 
despotism ; and the world comprehended them not. They 
refused to acquiesce in the compromise, because it involved 
a surrender of natural rights, and a violation of principles of 
duty toward God. Nevertheless, they were true Christians, 
and therefore they declined to set up their own convictions 
as a standard for others who subscribed to the Christian 
faith, and freely allowed to all their fellow subjects the same 
broad religious liberty which they claimed for themselves. 
They persisted in non-conformity. The more hardly pressed 
the more firmly they persisted. The more firm their persis- 
tence, the more severe and unrelenting was the persecution 
they endured. More than an hundred years virtually out- 
lawed as citizens and subjects, and outcasts from the estab- 
lished church, the Puritans bore unflinchingly their unwa- 
vering testimony against the compromise, before magistrates 
and councils, in the pillory, under stripes, in marches, in 
camps, in prison, in flight, in exile, among licentious soldiery 
and dissolute companions in neighboring lands ; on the broad 
and then unexplored ocean, when the mariners lost their 
reckoning, and the ships' supplies became scanty and her 
seams opened to the waves ; on unknown coasts, homeless, 
houseless, famishing and dying ; in the leafless forest, sur- 
rounded by ice and snow, fearful of savage beasts and con- 
fronting savage men. The compromise policy failed. Civil 
and religious liberty was not overborne ; it rose erect; it tri- 
umphed ; it is still gaining new and wider and more enduring 
triumphs ; and tyrants have read anew the lesson, so often 
wasted upon them before, that where mankind stand upon 
their convictions of moral right and duty, in disobedience 



IT 

to civil authority, there is no middle course of dealing with 
them, between the persecution that exterminates, and the 
toleration that satisfies. The Puritans were not extermina- 
ted, they were not satisfied. 

The Puritans thus persisted and prevailed because they 
had adopted one true, singular and sublime principle of civil 
conduct, namely : that the subject in every State has a 
natural right to religious liberty of conscience. They know 
too well the weakness of human guaranties of civil liberty, 
and the frailty of civil barriers against tyranny. They 
therefore did not affect to derive the right of toleration from 
the common law, or the statutes of the realm, or magna 
charta, or even from that imaginary contract between the 
sovereign and the subject, which some publicists had about 
that time invented as a basis for civil rights. They resorted 
directly to a law broader, older and more stable than all 
these — a law universal in its application and in its obliga- 
tion, established by the Creator and Judge of all men, and 
therefore paramount to all human constitutions. Algernon, 
Sidney, Locke and Bacon, and even Hooker, chosen and 
ablest champion of the Church of England, demonstrated 
the existence of this law, deriving the evidences of it, and of 
its universal nature and application, from natural and revealed 
religion, in the high debates of the seventeenth century. 
Blackstone, Vattel and Montesquieu, have built upon it 
their respective systems of municipal law, public law and 
government ; and our own Congress of 1776 sunk into the 
same enduring foundation the corner stone of this vast and 
towering structure of American freedom. The Puritans 
could therefore lay no claim to the discovery of this great 
principle, or to the promulgation of it. But the distin- 
guished glory of having first reduced it from speculation to 
actual and effective application, as a conventional rule of 
political conduct, is all their own. 
2 



18 

This great principle was not only a disturbing, but it was 
also an offensive and annoying one. It was an appeal from 
the highest sovereign power in the State to a sovereign power 
still higher, and therefore was thought seditious. It of course 
encountered then the same ingenious sophistry which, al- 
tliough often overthrown, has not even yet been silenced. It 
was argued, that if individual conscience may rightly refuse 
to acquiesce in the results of the general conviction collected 
by the State and established as law, it may also rightfully 
resist the law by force, which would produce disorder and 
lead to anarchy. It was argued, also, that insomuch as civil 
government is of divine appointment, it must be competent 
to act as an arbiter between conflicting consciences, and that 
implicit obedience to its decrees, as such arbiter, is therefore a 
religious duty. As might well have been foreseen, there arose 
on the side of the Puritans, contestants worthy of the ma- 
jestic principle they defended, contestants whose voices, then 
silenced by persecution or drowned by public clamor, have 
reached this more congenial age, and are now giving fonu 
and condensation to the whole science of political ethics. 
Not again recalling the names of Locke and Sidney, there 
was Edwards, profoundest metaphysician of all ages, and 
Milton, always discontented and distrusted among men, but 
familiar with angels, and learned in the counsels of Heaven. 
It was their sufficient reply, that unenlightened and unsanc- 
tified consciences will never disturb despotism with their 
remonstrances, and that consciences illuminated and purified 
cannot be perverted to error ; that God has delegated to no 
human tribunal authority to interfere between Himself and 
the monitor which he has implanted in the bosom of every 
moral being, and which is responsible to its Author alone ; 
and that the boundaries of human authority are the bounda- 
ries of eternal justice, ascertained by the teachings of that 
monitor which, where it is free and fully awakened, must 
always be the same. They answered farther and with decisive 



19 

energy, that traditions and compacts subversive of freedom 
were altogether void, because the masses of men living at 
one time in a State must always have supreme control over 
their own conduct, in all that concerns their duty to Grod 
and their own happiness. 

Fortunately, the Puritans had keen sagacity. They would 
not ask liberty of conscience as a political concession ; 
because, if granted as such, it might be revoked. Fortunately 
they were not purposely a political or civil body, but a 
purely religious one ; a church in the wilderness, as they 
described themselves ; a church without secular combina- 
tions, interests or ends ; a church with no interest but duty, 
no end but to avoid the divine disfavor, and no head but 
God. Fortunately, also, the age was as yet a religious 
one. Skepticism, which has since so wildly overrun large 
portions of Europe, and scattered its poison even here, had 
not then entered the world ; and the plenary nature and 
authority of the Holy Scriptures, to which the Puritans 
appealed, was universally acknowledged. It was especially 
felicitous that the lives of the Puritans vindicated their 
sincerity, magnanimity and piety. Equally in domestic and 
social life, and in the great transactions of the State in which 
they became concerned, their conduct was without fear 
and without reproach. With all these advantages, the Pu- 
ritans, as naturally as wisely, referred themselves to the Divine 
Revelations for the principle which they promulgated. 
With effective simplicity, they confined themselves to the 
main point in debate. They neither pretended to define 
nor to make summaries of all the natural rights of man 
which tyranny might invade, nor to trace out the ultimate 
secular consequences of the great principle on which they 
insisted. They rested the defence of the one natural right 
which was distinctly invaded, on no grounds of expediency 
or of public utility, but on the grounds alone that God had 
given it, and that man could not either invade or surrender 
it, without sin against the Divine majesty. It was the 
peculiarity of the right thus invaded and defended, that 



20 

lent to the Puritans their crowning advantage. Religion is 
the profoLindcst and most universal affection of" our nature. 
Apparently the cause of innumerable differences and endless 
controversies, it is, nevertheless, the one common and 
principal element which controls the actions of all men. It 
sustained the Puritans. It gradually won for them tlie 
respect and sympathies of men and of nations. The right 
assailed brought equally conscience and the love of liberty, 
the two most elastic and enduring springs of activity, into 
resistance. Its invasion was sacrilegious, because it assumed 
to add to the Divine commandments, and to take away from 
disobedience to them the curses that are written against it 
in the Book of Life. Primitive apostolical eloquence, which 
reminds us of the inspired apology of Paul before Agrippa, 
revived in its defence. Tiie Puritans spake from their 
prisons after this manner : 

" Upon a careful examination of the Holy Scriptures, we find the English 
hierarchy to be difierent from Christ's institution, and to be derived from 
Antichrist, being the same the Pope left in this land, to which we dare not sub- 
ject ourselves. We farther find that God ha.s commanded all that Ijclieve the 
go8pel to walk in that holy path and order which he has appointed in his 
church. AVhereforc, in the reverend fear of his name, we have joined our- 
eelves together, and subjected our souls and bodies to those laws and ordi- 
nances, and have chosen to ourseKes such a ministry of pastors, teachers, 
cldei-s and deacons, as Christ has given to his church on earth to the world's 
end, Roping for the promised assistance of his grace in our attendance upon 
him notwithstanding any proliibition of men, or what by men can be done 
unto us. We are ready to prove our church order to be warranted by the 
word of God, allowable by her Majesty's laws, and no wa^^s prejudicial to 
the sovereign power, and to disprove the public hierarchy, worship and gov- 
ernment, by such evidence as our adversaries shall n(jt be able to withstand, 
jjrotesting, if we fail herein, not only willingly to sustain such deserved 
punishment as shall be inflicted upon us, but to become conformable for the 
future, if we overthrow not our adversaries. * * * "We therefore, in the 
name of God and of our sovereign the Queen, pray that we may have the 
benefit of the laws and of the pvdjlic charters of the land, namely, that we 
may be received to bail, till we be by order of law convicted of some crime 
deserving of bonds. "We plight our laith unto CJod, and our allegiance to her 
Majesty, that we will not commit anything unworthy of the Gospel of 
Christ, or to the disturbance of the common peace and good order of the 
land, and that we will be forthcoming at such reasonable warning as your 



21 

lordship shall command. Oh, let us not perish before trial and judgment, 
especially imploring and crying out to you for the same. However, we take 
the Lord of heaven and earth, and his angels, together with your own 
consciences and all persons in all ages, to whom this our supplication may 
come, to witness that we have here truly advertised your honors of our case 
and maze, and have in all humility offered to come to Christian trial." 

How sublimely, and yet with touching eifect, does this 
opening of their cause by the Puritans illustrate the Divine 
instruction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
wisdom ! 

Let us consider now the scope and full import of the 
Puritan principle. That scope is not narrowed by any failure 
of the Puritans. themselves to comprehend it, or even by any 
neglect on their part to cover it fully in their own political 
conduct. Christianity is the same, however narrowed or 
perverted by erroneous creeds or practices among the faith- 
ful. Nor is the real merit of the Puritans diminished, 
because they did not fully comprehend all possible applica- 
tions of the principle they maintained. Human progress is 
only the following of an endless chain, suspended from the 
throne of God. The links of that chain are infinite in num- 
ber. The human hand can grasp only one of them at once. 

The Pui'itan principle of the inviolability of the right of 
conscience, necessarily covers the inviolability of all the 
acknowledged natural rights of man, as well those which 
concern his duty to himself and his duty to others, as those 
which arise out of his direct duties towards God. Certainly 
the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, the beneficent Father 
and Preserver of all life, the universal Lawgiver and Judge of 
all moral beings, is not in any human sense a jealous and 
exacting God, incensed by the withholding of homage due 
to himself, and yet regardless of the neglect of other human 
duties which he has prescribed. Assuredly, when he com- 
mands us not only to walk humbly before Himself, but also 
to perfect our own nature, and to do justice, and love mercy 
towards other men, he has given us the same absolute right 
to the free exercise of our faculties, in performing these 
latter duties, that he has given us for the performance of the 



22 

first. Nor is there any homage to God so acceptable as the 
upright heart and pure. lie that loveth not his brother 
whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath 
not seen? 

The Puritan principle further involves the political equality 
of all men. Absolute rights arise out of the moral constitu- 
tion of man. There is only one moral constitution of all 
men. The absolute rights of all men are therefore the 
same. Political equality is nothing else than the full enjoy- 
ment, by every member of the State, of the absolute 
rights which belong equally to all men. Any abridge- 
ment of that equality, on whatever consideration, except 
by discriminating justice in the punishment of crimes is 
therefore forbidden to human government by the Divine 
authority. The Puritans so understood their own great 
principle, in its bearing upon the right of conscience. 

" Liberty of conscience (said one of their earliest organs) is the natural 
right of every man. * * * lie that will look back on past times, and 
examine into the true causes of the subversion and devastation of states 
and countries, will find it owing to the tyranny of princes and the persecution 
of priests. The ministers of the Established Church say, 'if we tolerate 
one sect, we must tolerate all.' This is true. They have as good a right to 
their consciences as to their clothes or estates. No opinions or sentiments 
of religion are cognizable by the magistrates, any further than they are 
inconsistent with the peace of civii government." 

But this latitude of the principle of tolerance has been 
always vigorously and efficiently opposed by prejudice, 
pride and bigotry, in every church, in every sect, in every 
State and under every form of government. Each sect has 
claimed liberty of conscience for itself as a natural right, 
but with gross inconsistency, which invalidated its own 
argument, has denied that liberty to other sects — as if the 
Supreme Ruler had made men to agree, instead of differing, 
upon non-essential as well as upon essential articles of 
religious faith. The principle has nevertheless continually 
gained, and is still gaining, fresh triumphs. After a long 
contest in England, toleration was granted to all but Roman 
Catholics and Jews. One hundred and fifty years after the 



23 

organization of the Puritans, the principle entered into all 
the American constitutions. Fifty years later, it emanci- 
pated the Roman Catholics throughout Great Britain. Only 
a year ago, it removed the disfranchisement of the Jews in 
the British dominions. It has thus irrevocably become a 
part of the constitution of that great empire. 

The Puritan principle draws closely after it the consequence 
of an absolute separation of church and State, for the reason 
that the toleration of conscience can in no other way be 
practically and completely established. That separation 
has been made in the American constitutions, with abundant 
advantage to both the cause of religion and the cause of 
good government. Great Britain is advancing steadily to- 
wards the adoption of the same broad, just and beneficent 
policy. The separation of church and State may therefore 
be regarded as a contribution made by the Puritans towards 
perfecting the art of government. 

The political equality of men has also met with obstinate 
resistance, and has also achieved many and auspicious tri- 
umphs. After one hundred and fifty years of controversy, 
it was carried into the British constitution by the judicial 
decision in Somerset's case that a slave could not breathe 
the air of England. Ten or fifteen years later, it was theo- 
retically adopted and promulgated in the Declaration of 
American Independence. The suppression of the African 
slave trade, by conventions of the States of Christendom, 
transferred the same principle to the law of nations. The 
abolition of African slavery by all of the European nations, 
and, with few exceptions, also by all of the American States, 
is indicative of the universal adoption of the same great prin- 
ciple by all Christian nations, at some period not far distant. 
You are now prepared, I trust, for another and still more 
comprehensive view of the Puritan principle, namely : that 
its full and perfect development is the pure system of repub- 
lican government. Such was its marked tendency in the 
beginning. " A generous disdain of one man's will," says a 
truly philosophical writer, " is to republics what chastity is 



24 

to woman — a conservative principle, not to be argued 
upon or subjected to calculations of utility." Puritanism 
was a protest against the will of one man, whether that man 
was Pope or King. What form of government, other than 
the pure republic, can there be where there is complete sepa- 
ration of church and State and where absolute political 
equality prevails? Abolish the connection of church and 
State and all political distinctions between the members of the 
State, in any of the kingdoms or empires of P^urope, and what 
would remain, or could exist there, but a pure republic ? 
If the argument is not yet conclusive, consider then that 
the Puritan principle tends to the pure republic, by virtue 
of its conservative protection of the individual member of 
the State against its corporate oppression ; by virtue, also, 
of its elevation of individual conscience — thus bringing 
down the importance of the aggregate mass, and raising the 
personal importance and dignity of the subject or citizen ; 
by virtue of the importance it attaches to personal rights, 
exalting them above material interests — and so making those 
rights, and not property, the primary object of the care of 
government ; and by virtue, still further, of the openness, 
directness and frankness of conduct which it requires. 
Equal tolerance in religion, and equal enjoyment of the 
other absolute rights of man, are inconsistent with the 
secrecy and fraud which monarchy and aristocracy necessarily 
employ, and cannot endure private councils or cabals. The 
Puritan principle tends to the pure republic still more 
obviously, because it seeks to abridge the powers of 
government, and substitute consent and free acquiescence 
as the bonds of union between the members of the State, 
instead of armed or military force. This operation of the 
principle is happily illustrated in our own republic, which, 
although constituted by an ever-increasing number of 
distinct States, has, nevertheless been held together eighty 
years, and is, I trust, to be held together forever, without, for 
that purpose, even the shadow of a standing army — an 
anomaly as pleasing as it is full of profitable instruction. 



25 

Let it be confessed that the Puritans, as a body, were slow 
to discern these consequences and tendencies. They dis- 
claimed them long and with unquestionable sincerity. 

"Although (said they to EUzabeth) Her Majesty be incensed against us, 
as if we would obey no laws, we take the Lord of heaven and earth to 
witness that we acknowledge, from the bottom of our hearts. Her Majesty 
to be our lawful Queen placed over us for our good ; and we give God our 
most humble and hearty thanks for her happy government ; and both in 
public and private we constantly pray for her prosperity. We renounce all 
foreign power, and acknowledge Her Majesty's supremacy to be lawful and 
just. We detest all error and heresy. Yet we desire that Her Majesty 
will not think us disobedient, seeing we suffer ourselves to be displaced rather 
than yield to some things required. Our bodies and goods,, and all we have 
are in Her Majesty's hands ; only our souls which we reserve to our God, 
who is able to save and condemn us." 

Long afterwards, and after the Puritans in America had 
practically enjoyed a pure republican government through 
some generations, the colony of Massachusetts saluted 
Charles II. on his restoration, with this loyal address r 

" To enjoy our liberty, and to walk according to the faith and order of the 
gospel, was the cause of us transplanting ourselves with our wives, our little 
ones and our substance, choosing the pure Christain worship, with a good 
conscience in this remote wilderness, rather than the pleasures of England 
with submission to the impositions of the hierarchy, to which we could not 
yield without an evil conscience. We are not seditious to the interests of 
of Cassar." 

Nevertheless, the reluctance of the Puritans to admit the 
full tendencies of their principle cannot justly excite sur- 
prise. We necessarily fear, and feel our way, when we are 
treading on unknown ground, or in the dark. *' Let no one 
who begins an innovation," says Machiavelli, " expect that 
he shall stop it at his pleasure, or regulate it according to 
his intention." The Puritans never aimed to be, and never 
consciously were secular or political reformers. Their field 
of labor, as they bounded it, lay all within the Church of 
Christ. They sought not an earthly republic, but only the 
kingdom of heaven. When sometimes the thought pre- 
sented itself, that, by reason of their fidelity to their profes- 



26 

sion, a purer and better political state would arise out of the 
commotions through which they were passing, it seemed 
still to them a merely secondary object, subordinate to the 
one sole religious purpose for which they had combined. 
We all have learned how slowly the sentiment of indepen- 
dence, and the principle of republicanism, ripened in these 
colonies during the early stages of the revolutionary contest, 
and how these free institutions rose suddenly under the 
hands of a people who were even yet protesting an endu- 
ring loyalty to the throne and parliament of Great Britain. 
It was not so, however, with the master spirits, Adams, Otis 
and Jefferson. Nor was it so in the case of the Puritans 
with Milton. 

" No man, (said he,) who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all 
men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God 
himself, and were, by privilege above all the creatures, born to command and 
not to obey. The power of kings and magistrates is nothing else but what is 
only derivative, transferred and committed to them in trust from the people, 
to the common good of them all, in whom the power yet fundamentally 
remains and cannot be taken from them, without a violatiou of their 
natural birthright." 

How, then, has it happened that civil consequences so 
vast have followed the merely religious action of the 
Puritans? The apparent mystery is easily explained. Civil 
liberty is an object of universal and intense desire. The 
cause of the Puritans identified itself with the cause of civil 
liberty in England, and ultimately, though on their part 
unconsciously, became the leading element of that cause, 
both in Europe and America. Thus identified and eminent 
the Puritan cause effected the establishment of a republic 
which endured through a short but glorious period in 
England. Though the British nation soon relapsed, and 
monarchy was restored, yet the Puritan principle, neverthe- 
less, modified the constitution, and gave to it the popular 
form which it now bears. A throne yet towers above that 
edifice, but it is no longer the throne of the Stuarts or of the 
Tudors, or even of the Plantagenets. It is simply orna- 
mental. The lords, spiritual and temporal, still constitute 
^distinct estates, and retain their ancient dignity. But their 



27 

real political power and influence have passed away, and 
the commons, no longer contesting inch by inch for their 
constitutional rights, are virtually the rulers of the British em- 
pire. France oscillates so uneasily and tremulously between 
the republic and military despotism, that no one who is 
hopeful of progress doubts where the needle will settle at 
last. It has become a proverb, that Europe must soon be 
either republican or despotic. When the compromise system 
of limited monarchy shall have retired, and only the two 
systems of republicanism and despotism are left to confront 
each other on that continent, in an age of still increasing 
intellectual and moral energies, the triumph of the former, 
though uncertain in the points of time and manner and field 
of contest, will nevertheless be assured. The Puritan prin- 
ciple is shaping, already, future republics on the islands and 
continents of the Pacific Ocean, and on the heretofore 
neglected coasts of Africa, while the American continent is 
everywhere crowned with free institutions, due to its still 
more direct and potential influence. From Plymouth Rock to 
Labrador, to Magellan, and around, by bay, gulf, and head- 
land, to Nootka Sound, the republican system, more or less 
developed, and more or less firmly established, pervades this 
hemisphere. Such are the already ripening and ripened 
fruits of the vigorous plants of Puritanism, gathered equally 
and promiscuously from the parent stock in England, and 
from the exotic one so carefully transplanted on this rugged 
coast, and so sedulously watered, watched, cherished and 
reared, by the Pilgrim Fathers. 

Behold how the unfolding, justly and naturally as I trust, 
of a theme primarily local, sectional, and even sectarian, has. 
brought us to the solution of the great problem of the 
progress of mankind towards social happiness and beneficent 
government. That higher stage of social happiness, that 
purer form of republican government, to which we are 
tending, are but faintly shadowed forth in the disturbed 
transition scenes through which we are passing, and even 
in the most perfect institutions which have yet been framed 
from the confused materials of dilapidated and decaying 



28 

systems. Present defects and imperfections no more warrant 
conclusions against that better future which has been 
indicated, than the incompleteness of the development of 
Christian principles justifies a fear of the ultimate failure of 
Christianity itself. 

It is a law of human progress, that no work or structure 
proceeding from human hands shall come forth complete 
and perfect. Improvement, at the cost of labor and of 
trial, and even sufiering — endless improvement, at such 
cost, is the discipline of human nature. 

What, then, shall be the rule of our own conduct? Shall we 
grasp and hold fast to existing constitutions, with all their 
defects and deficiencies, and save them from needed 
amendment, or shall we amend and complete them, and so 
prevent re-actions, and the need of sanguinary revolutions? 
Shall we compromise the principles of justice, freedom 
and humanity, by compliances with the councils of interest- 
ed cupidity or slavish fear, or shall we stand fast always 
in their defence ? I know no better rule of conduct than 
that of the Puritans. Indeed, I know none other that is 
sure, or even safe. Nor can even that great rule be followed 
successfully without adopting their own noble temper and 
spirit. They were faithful, patient and persevering. They 
forgot tliemselves, and their own immediate interests and 
ambitions, and labored and suffered, that after-coming 
generations, among which we belong, might be safer and 
freer and happier than themselves. It can never be too 
well understood that the generations of men, in moral and 
political culture, sow and plant for their successors. "Let 
•it not be grievous to you," said Bradford, the meek but 
brave and constant leader, to the small and forlorn Pilgrim 
commonwealth, that he was landing on this rock in mid- 
winter — " Let it not be grievous to you that you have been 
made instruments to break the ice for others. The honor 
shall be yours, to the world's end." Such was the only 
worldly encouragement the truthful founder of the Plymouth 
colony could give to his guileless comrades. Happily, the 
Pilgrims needed no others. 



29 

It is a familiar law of nature, that whatever grows rapidly 
also declines speedily. Time and trial are necessary to 
secure the full vigor without which no enterprise can 
endure. It was only by long, perilous and painful endu- 
rance and controversy, that the Puritans acquired the 
discipline which, without consciousness of their own, 
qualified them to be the leaders of the nations. 

Need I add, that there can be neither great deeds nor 
great endurance without faith ; and that true, firm, enduring 
faith can only be found in generous and noble minds. The 
true reformer, therefore, must calculate on frequent and 
ever-recurring treacheries and desertions by allies, sach as 
Milton graphically describes : 

" Another sort there is, vrho, coming in the course of these affairs to have 
their share in great actions above the form of law or custom, at least to 
give their voice and approbation, begin to swerve and almost shiver at the 
majesty and grandeur of some noble deed ; as if they were newly entered 
into a great sin, disputing precedents, forms and circumstances, when 
the commonwealth nigh perishes for want of deeds in substance done 
with just and faithful expedition. To these I wish better instruction and 
virtue equal to their calling." 

Nor will all these qualities suffice, without discretion and 
gentleness as well as firmness of temper. The courageous 
reformer will shrink from no controversy, when the field is 
open, the battle is set, and the lists are fair. But, on the 
other hand, he will neither make nor seek occasions for 
activity ; and he will be always unimpassioned. Truth is 
not aggressive ; but like the Christian religion, is first pure, 
then peaceable. Nor need the reformer fear that occasions 
for duty will be wanting. Error and injustice never fail to 
provoke contest ; because, if unalarmed, they are overbear- 
ing and insolent ; if alarmed, they are rash, passionate and 
reckless. 

The question occurs. Whence shall come the faith, the 
energy, the patient perseverance and the moderation, which 
are so indispensable ? I answer, that all these will be de- 
rived from just concejitions of the great objects of political 
action. It was so with the Puritans. Their fixed purpose 
to retain the right of conscience, fully comprehended by 



30 

them, extinguished selfishness and ambition, and called into 
activity in their places the fear of God and the love of man. 
Let them explain themselves : 

" Knowing, therefore, how horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of 
the living God, by doing that which our consciences (grounded ujjon the 
truth of God's Word and the example and doctrine of ancient fathers) do 
tell us were evil done, and to the great discrediting of the truth whereof we 
profess to be teachers, we have thought good to yield ourselves into the 
hands of men ; to suffer whatsoever God hath appointed us to sufler, for the 
perfecting of the commandments of God and a clean conscience before the 
commandments of men. Not despising men, therefore, but trusting in God 
only, we seek to serve him with a clear conscience so long as we shall live 
here, assuring ourselves that the things that we shall suffer for so doing 
shall be a testimony to the world that great reward is laid up for us in 
heaven, where we doubt not but to rest forever with those that have before 
our days suffered for the like." 

Contrast these sentiments, so profoundly self-renouncing 
and reverential of God, with the blasphemous egotism of 
the French revolutionists of 1798, and contrast also the 
slowly formed and slowly maturing, but always multiplying 
and ripening fruits of the Puritan reformation, with the 
blasted and shriveled benefits of that other great modern 
convulsion, and you have an instructive and memorable 
lesson upon the elevation and purity of spirit which alone 
can advance human progress. 

Increase of wealth and commerce and the enlargement of 
empire, are not truly primary objects of the American pa- 
triot. These are, indeed, worthy of his efforts. But the first 
object is the preservation of the spirit of freedom, which is 
the soul of the republic itself. Let that become languid 
and the republic itself must languish and decline. Let it 
become extinct, and the republic must disastrously fall. 
Let it be preserved and invigorated, and the republic will 
spread wider and wider, and its noble institutions will tower 
higher and higher. Let it fall, and so its example fail, and 
the nations will retrograde. Let it endure and the world 
will yet be free, virtuous and happy. Hitherto, nations have 
raised monuments to survive liberty and empire. And they 
have been successful. Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Italy are 
full of those monuments. Let our ambition be the nobler 



31 

one of establishing liberty and empire, which shall survive 
the most stupendous material structures which genius can 
devise or art erect, with all the facilities of increasing 
knowledge and public wealth. 

Here my reflections on a subject infinitely suggestive 
come to an end. They will not be altogether fruitless, if 
I have been at all successful in illustrating the truths that 
continual meliorations of society and government are not 
only possible, but certain ; that human progress is slow, 
because it is only the unfolding of the divine providence 
concerning man ; that the task of directing and aiding that 
progress is rendered the most difficult of all our labors, by 
reason of our imperfect knowledge of the motives and 
principles of human conduct, and of countless unforeseen 
obstacles to be encountered ; that this progress, nevertheless, 
must and will go on, whether favored or resisted ; that it 
will go on, peacefully, if wisely favored, and through 
violence, if unwisely resisted ; that neither stability, nor 
even safety, can be enjoyed by any State, otherwise than 
by rendering exact justice, which is nothing else than pure 
equality, to all its members ; that the martial heroism, 
which, invoked after too long passiveness under oppression 
and misrule, sometimes achieves the deliverance of States, 
is worthy of all the honor it receives ; but that the real 
authors of all benign revolutions are those who search out 
and seek to remove peacefully the roots of social and 
political evils, and so avert the necessity for sanguinary 
remedies ; that the Puritans of England and America have 
given the highest and most beneficent illustration of that 
conservative heroism which the world has yet witnessed ; 
that they have done this by the adoption of a single, true 
and noble principle of conduct, and by patient and 
persevering fidelity to it ; that they thus overcame a 
demoralizing political and social reaction, and gave a new 
and powerful impulse to human progress ; that tyranny is 
deceitful, and mankind are credulous, and that therefore 
political compromises are more dangerous to liberty than 
open usurpations ; that the Puritan principle, which was so 



32 

Bublime and so effective, was nothing else than the truth 
that men retain in every State all the natural rights which 
are essential to tlie performance of personal, social and 
religious duties ; that the principle includes the absolute 
equality of all men, and therefore tends to a complete 
development in pure republican systems ; that it has 
already modified the institutions of Europe, while it has 
brouglit into existence republican systems, more or less 
perfect throughout the American continent, and is fixing 
and shaping such institutions wherever civilization is found; 
that hindrances, delays, and reactions of political progress, 
are nevertheless unavoidable, but that they also have corres, 
ponding benefits; that it is our duty to labor to advance 
that progress, chiefly by faith, constancy and perseverance 
— virtues which can only be acquired by self-renunciation, 
and by yielding to the motives of the fear of God and the 
love of mankind. 

Come forward then, ye Nations, States, and Races — rude, 
savage, oppressed and despised — enslaved, or mutually 
warring among yourselves, as ye are — upon whom the 
morning star of civilization hath either not yet dawned or 
hath only dimly broken amid clouds and storms, and receive 
the assurance that its shining shall yet be complete, and its 
light be poured down on all alike. Receive our pledges 
that we will wait and watch and strive for the fullness of 
that light, by the exercise of faith, with patience and 
perseverance. And ye reverend men, whose precious dust is 
beneath our unworthy feet, pilgrims and sojourners in this 
vale of tears no longer, but Kings and Princes now at the 
right hand of the throne of the God you served so faithfully 
when on the earth — gather yourselves, immortal and awful 
shades, around us, and witness, not the useless honors we 
pay to your memories, but our resolves of fidelity to truth, 
duty, and freedom, which arise out of the contemplation of 
the beneficent operation of your own great principle of 
conduct, and the ever-widening influence of your holy 
teachings and Godlike example. 



